


Prompt:  S.S.R. Students

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [28]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain America: The First Avenger Timeline, Codependency, Gen, Howling Commandos - Freeform, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 12:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5666581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By the time the Colonel arrives they’ve pieced together what they can, given the records burning in the room down the hall. Experimentation of extremes, trying to see what could be done to the human body and it still endure. Experimentation for cosmetic value, experimentation to see if twins really do share a bond.</p><p>“We do,” the girl - Wanda - had murmured to Peggy in German, “But I could hear the others all too. They were all hurting until they died.” Her brother - Pietro - had pulled her to him, setting down his empty mug to cradle her to his chest, murmuring something in another language.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prompt:  S.S.R. Students

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-fic notes: MCU canon places Sokovia between Austria and Serbia, approximately, which makes it likely a part of Yugoslavia at this point in history, I think. As a result the twins know Austrian-German and Serbian, and have some understanding of several related Germanic and Slavic languages. Rat Pack is short for Ration Pack, the term used for the food soldiers of most any official stripe carry with them (Navy, Army, Marine, etc.). I’m also going to add in here that Wanda’s understanding of her powers in this ficlet is limited by both her age and what she has been exposed to, and nothing she says in this ficlet is a lie.
> 
> Fic can also be read where it was posted on my tumblr for a prompt [Here](http://essayofthoughts.tumblr.com/post/136853978690/prompt-twins-in-ww-ii-the-howling-commandos-are). Now has a sequel readable [Here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5715586) with a further sequel [Here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5690527).

 

* * *

 

 **i.**  
The Commandos know of the experiments of HYDRA and the Nazis. Bucky’s nightmares are a living reminder, for all he stifles them better than many. Sometimes they all wake to the screams of members of the 107th, other times morning comes and Bucky is sitting next to Steve as though his company and the tin mug of coffee in his hands are the only things holding him up.

They did not quite believe of the other stories of the experiments until they hit a HYDRA-run concentration camp.

 

* * *

 

 **ii.**  
It isn’t large, hidden by a castle in the forests outside the city of Novi Grad in the principality of Sokovia. Taken by Germany from Yugoslavia, people disapproved of, disliked by the Nazis were herded away, and not seen again.

The people they find there are skeletons and yet somehow living. They get people out as best they can, make sure the gates are open, the guards gone and reinforcements coming with food and blankets and a battalion of nurses. 

Its Duggan who notices there are no children there. It’s Morita who goes, “You know what they say about the experiments.”

It’s Dernier who rolls his eyes at them, standing around uncertain, and hollers out in French. Steve has learned enough by now to get the gist. _Where are the children?_

One of the ex-prisoners points towards the castle with a bone-like finger and they all of them hoist their weapons.

 

* * *

 

 **iii.**  
The castle is better defended than the camp, better defended than most sites, and, without words, they know it is HYDRA. Morita radios back to Peggy, rapid staccato morse code and her voice crackles back. “Holding pattern orders.”

There is something in Bucky’s face, a fear-gladness at the code phrase. Their original orders hold. Find HYDRA and wipe them out.

 

* * *

 

 **iv.**  
It’s Morita and Jones who finds the twins, and Steve’s glad of it. Ornery, Jim can be, but he knows when its necessary to be kind, and with Gabe to crack the locks and offer a kind face, Jim is free to force the radios to working.

“Cap?” he says, and Steve lets his shield drop to reach for the radio, and indicates to Bucky to take point as he responds.

“Here, Jim, what is it?”

“Kids,” he says. “There’s only two left.”

 

* * *

 

 **v.**  
By the time Peggy and what nurses they’ve been able to sneak in arrive the twins are curled small together beneath a blanket in a corner of the room. Dernier’s managed to not dismantle the tech in the room entirely, and has apparently made a heater from a variety of bits and pieces. There is the smell of Rat Pack soup in the room, from the mugs cradled by the two children and by Falsworth sitting with them, murmuring questions in broken German.

“Hey Peg,” Gabe offers with a smile, when Peggy walks in. “Want tea? We’ve been waiting for the water to boil.”

"When its ready,” she says. “Tea too cold is not tea at all.” Gabe nods, still smiling, as Peggy continues. “Report? Phillips will be catching up in two hours and then we’re clearing out.”

“Sorry Peggy,” Bucky offers before Steve can speak, “But this may take most of them.” He nods towards the twins. “You know any German?”

 

* * *

 

 **vi.**  
By the time the Colonel arrives they’ve pieced together what they can, given the records burning in the room down the hall. Experimentation of extremes, trying to see what could be done to the human body and it still endure. Experimentation for cosmetic value, experimentation to see if twins really do share a bond.

“We do,” the girl - Wanda - had murmured to Peggy in German, “But I could hear the others all too. They were all hurting until they died.” Her brother - Pietro - had pulled her to him, setting down his empty mug to cradle her to his chest, murmuring something in another language.

Peggy wanted, very much, to know how old they were, looking malnourished and barely twelve beneath the blanket and the grey robes they wore, and forced herself to stay focussed. “Is that what you can do?” Peggy asked. “Hear people... somehow?”

Wanda nodded and lifted a hand. Her eyes glowed, and scarlet danced around her fingers. “I can move things,” she said, “if I concentrate, and I can hear when people are hurting or lying.” She glanced up to her brother, smiled the smallest and truest of smiles. “Pietro can run.”

 

* * *

 

 **vii.**  
“What do we do with them?” Steve asks Peggy as they drive away. There’s a meeting point only a few miles distant, and if they can get there they can get the now-freed prisoners to copters to get them as clear as possible, get their next mission orders. Steve glances to the children, perched on the Landrover bench between Gabe and Monty. “They can’t stay with us.”

“They aren’t,” Peggy says. “I’ll send them back to the S.S.R. offices in Britain. They’ll be safe there, and Howard might be able to make sense of what they can do.”

Steve frowns. “They can’t be experiments again. We can’t just let Howard experiment on them. They’re _kids_.”

Peggy’s hand is gentle on his arm. “We’re not going to. But we need to understand what they do and how they do it. They won’t be forced to accept any tests, but if we know _how_  we can help them.”

 

* * *

 

 **viii.**  
“I’m not a damn babysitter!” Howard says when Peggy next sees him, twins standing either side of her.

“I know, Howard,” Peggy says, and glances down to the twins. “Show him what you can do,” she suggests in German. Howard is almost knocked off his feet by Pietro’s silver blur and his eyes widen as Wanda’s scarlet riffles through the tools and blueprints on his desk.

“Oh,” he says.

 

* * *

 

 **ix.**  
The twins have a small room, but its one they can share and they’re grateful for that. Sometimes Howard - in poor German - asks if they’ll do some things for him with their powers, if Pietro will see just how fast he can go for ten seconds, if Wanda can lift certain weights. Sometimes they say yes, and sometimes, when Pietro is sick of it, they say no.

They still get given food.

They have been there a month when Wanda starts speaking English, without any of the agents there having taught her. Pietro starts soon after, and while it’s not without flaws its surprisingly good for children who haven’t been taught the language.

 

* * *

 

 **x.**  
“Oh,” Wanda says, when Howard finally asks how she learned so quickly. “I didn’t. It was in everyone’s heads. I had to...” she pauses, searches for the words. “ _Comprehend_. Some words were simple, but the grammar is different. That caused the most trouble.”

“Wait,” Howard says. “I know you could hear if people were in pain or lying, but you can hear _everything?”_

Wanda blinks, and Pietro is beside her in a moment. “Yes?” she says. “When I listen.”

“Right,” Howard says, and looks the twins up and down. They’re almost fourteen now, and Pietro is growing like a weed. “How about we start actually training rather than testing?”

Wanda bites her lip, Pietro rocks from leg to leg. “Does it mean we can hurt the people who killed our parents?” Pietro asks, and Wanda places a hand on her brother’s arm.

“Does it mean we can do good?” she asks instead.

“Yes,” Howard tells her, and for once there is nothing teasing or joking in his tone.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Prompt: Asking of Nightmares](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5690527) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts)
  * [Prompt: Honorary Nuncle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715586) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts)
  * [Prompt: S.S.R. Schooling](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5951385) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts)




End file.
